[3][4] There are more than a thousand listed buildings that form part of the Historic-Artistic Complex of the City of Melilla, a Bien de Interés Cultural, and are spread throughout the central expansion and its neighbourhoods.

In the 1930s, Art Deco took hold in Melilla's architecture, and architects such as Francisco Hernanz Martínez or Lorenzo Ros Costa created spectacular buildings in the city's neighbourhoods.

The eclectic is another based on mixing elements, alternating them and increasing the ornamentation, with greater richness of wrought iron and the appearance of flying cornices, highlighting Droctoveo Castañón, house of Carmen Balaca and headquarters of the North African Company and José de la Gándara, the Mixed Schools Group, current headquarters of the Department of Economy and Finance of the Autonomous City of Melilla, the Metropol building, the Melilla Port Authority building and the Polígono market.

Although what best defines Melilla architecture is modernism, a true continuation of the Rococo, with a very rich ornamentation, of infinite and suggestive forms and varied colours.

Its construction began in 1890, under the project of the commander of engineers Eligio Suza and contracted by Manuel Fernández, and was inaugurated on January 1, 1892, and blessed by the vicar Juan Verdejo.